Israel told the United Nations Special Political Committee today that it supports a “reasonable extension” of the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Ambassador Michael Comay told the committee, which is considering UNRWA’s mandate, due to expire June 30, 1969, that “any sudden and drastic change in its present activities, unaccompanied by a broad program for permanent integration” of the refugees, “would only cause fresh hardship and instability,”
He said that “the first stage in the final settlement of the problem will have to be a thorough factual survey that will reveal how many bona fide refugees there actually are and what the real extent is of their absorption.” This could then make possible rehabilitation of those Arabs that still need it and a start toward winding up the 20-year-old UNRWA relief operation, Mr. Comay said.
Mr. Comay told the committee that Israel spent $3.5 million in services and contributions to UNRWA and the Arab refugees during the year ended June 30, 1968. Its Government plans to make another special contribution of $285,714 to UNRWA to be utilized in cash or building materials. Responding to UN pleas to permit persons displaced by the 1967 war and facing winter hardships to return to the West Bank, Mr. Comay said Israel is “doing its best to reconcile the return” of the DPs with “responsibility for the safety, welfare and security of the local population and the security of the State itself.” He said that steps, promised in the General Assembly by Foreign Minister Abba Eban, to “intensify and accelerate action to widen” the family reunion program and to process “hardship cases” are being taken.
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